View full sizeChris Osborne is a Hoover resident and amputee who will take part in a long drive championship in Loudon, Tenn. Photo courtesy of Chris Osborne.

HOOVER, Alabama – The love of golf is what fuels
participants of the Amputee Long Drive Championship in Loudon, Tenn. As the name
says, the competitors are all people who have sustained injuries or illnesses that led to
the removal of arms or legs. Forestdale resident Chris Osborne, who lost his leg in
accident, will take part in the championship July
18-19.

Loss of limb doesn't get to these dedicated golfers, said
Dean Jarvis of Loudon, the Amputee Long Drive Championship's founder and an
above-the-knee amputee. If anything, it has empowered them.

"The focus will be on amputees who are successful and
empowered," he said. "Golf has been the number one rehabilitation sport out
there. Several of my friends and I think that golf has given us something positive
in our lives, and it's a wonderful exercise."

Jarvis said that the idea was inspired by the Wounded
Warriors Project, a program that helps disabled and amputee veterans. He
decided to create a long-drive competition - in which golfers hit the ball as far as they can - that would have civilian amputees
taking part.

"Golf, to me, is very therapeutic," Osborne said. "It's a
game that anyone can play, from a child to a senior. It's a level playing
field. It's one of the few games where you can take your son or your daughter
out and play with your mother, father, uncle or anyone who's involved. That's
one of the unique things about this game."

Osborne said that he started playing golf at 13 when he
would accompany his father to play with friends from their church. He picked it
up again after graduation from college until a motorcycle accident in 2004 took
his left leg. He uses a prosthetic limb. After his accident, Osborne said that
he had to learn how to play golf all over again.

"That was a real trying time," Osborne said. "I never got
discouraged but I was starting all over again. Everything was different. I had
to learn how to balance myself while swinging on a prosthetic leg. There were
some balance issues there and learning how to shift my weight."

Osborne, a former ABC 33/40 news anchor, said that friends in the Birmingham community helped
him pick up the game again. He said that his friends encouraged him to "play
conservatively" and enjoy the sport.

"There were some folks here in Birmingham who were very
supportive and worked with me to help me learn how to enjoy the game again," he
said. "Some gentlemen I play golf with encouraged me to swing the club, to get
out and practice, to continue to enjoy the game the best way possible, which
was to learn how to adapt to my so-called 'disability' and learn how to play
the game using that."

He played in his first competition after being introduced to
the National Amputee Golf Association. Jarvis
invited Osborne to take part in the championship game.

"It was an eye-opener to see golfers who had amputated legs
and arms, and some that are even wheelchair bound, that were playing really
good golfers," he said of the first few games he played.

Sometimes amputees are subject to stigma or may experience "positive
stereotyping" in which people who are disabled or are amputees are perceived as
helpless. Not so, said Osborne.

"I think that for a long time, the stigma about amputees was
'Oh my gosh, look at this poor person,' but the technology that's available
today for prosthetic limbs can really help you to lead a full and rewarding life
and I think that people are starting to realize that an amputation doesn't mean
the end of activity. It just means that you have to modify those activities to
be able to participate in those activities and enjoy them."

Despite this, some may end up being discouraged. Osborne further
encourages people who have gone through an amputation not to lose hope. He has visited amputees in hospitals to offer
help.

"One of the things that I tell them is that life is not
over," he said. "For whatever reason that you have to suffer through becoming
an amputee, your life has been spared. And whether you're religious or not, my
faith in God really helped me get up and going. I didn't go through a lot of
depression but others accept this in different ways... but life is not over."

The Amputee Long Drive Championship will have 13 players
competing. It will also feature exhibitions by three disabled or amputee
golfers: David Meador, who is blind, Brad Clayton, an arm amputee, and Easton LaChappelle,
who designed a 3D, brain-powered prosthetic arm.